Dzogchen Beara is a Tibetan Buddhist retreat centre on the Beara Peninsula near Allihies in West Cork in Ireland established by Sogyal Rinpoche in 1987. It is home to the Spiritual Care Centre, which was opened by Mary McAleese on 12 September 2007. [1] [2]
Peter and Harriet Cornish bought the land where Dzogchen Beara is located in 1973. [3] In 1992, they offered the land and its buildings to a charitable trust under the guidance of Sogyal Rinpoche. Harriet died in 1993 and her death, and the way she was cared for, became the inspiration for the Spiritual Care Centre, which opened in 2007. [4] [5] Peter Cornish and Dzogchen Beara were the subject of a documentary made for Dutch television called The Retiring Hermit. [6] Cornish's memoir describing the creation of Dzogchen Beara was published in 2014 under the title Dazzled by Daylight. [7]
In 2006 the centre became the first Buddhist centre in Ireland to host a Christian Mass, performed by Father Laurence Freeman. [8]
In 2017 following multiple allegations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from current and ex-members of Rigpa, Sogyal Rinpoche "decided, with immediate effect, to retire as spiritual director from all the organizations that bear the name of Rigpa in different countries around the world". [9]
The first closed one-year retreats, which follow a traditional Tibetan schedule of practice and study, began in 1994. [10]
Over the years, Dzogchen Beara has hosted a number of senior lamas from the Tibetan tradition, including Dzogchen Rinpoche, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Garchen Rinpoche, Orgyen Tobgyal, Ringu Tulku, H.E Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche and Garje Khamtrul Rinpoche. [10] It has also hosted events with several non-Tibetan teachers, including Father Laurence Freeman, [11] Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, Dr Tony Bates, [12] Christine Longaker, Patrick Gaffney, Sharon Salzberg [13] and Andrew Warr.
The Spiritual Care Centre opened in 2007. According to Darci Meyers, its aim is "to support people leading up to death, at the time of death, and after death." [5]
There are plans to build Ireland's first Buddhist temple on the site. [14] [15] The project is being guided by Orgyen Tobgyal, who consecrated the site by performing a fire ceremony in 2010. [16] Work on the foundations of the temple building began in April 2016 and the block work of the three level building has recently been completed. [17]
Dzogchen, also known as atiyoga, is a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Yungdrung Bon aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence. The primordial ground is said to have the qualities of purity, spontaneity and compassion. The goal of Dzogchen is knowledge of this basis, this knowledge is called rigpa. There are numerous spiritual practices taught in the various Dzogchen systems for awakening rigpa.
In Dzogchen, rigpa is knowledge of the ground. The opposite of rigpa is ma rigpa. A practitioner who has attained the state of rigpa and is able to rest there continuously is called a Rigdzin or Rigma, which may be used as a title either pre- or post-nominally.
Tashi Paljor, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was a Vajrayana master, scholar, poet, teacher, and recognized by Buddhists as one of the greatest realized masters. Head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism from 1988 to 1991, he is also considered an eminent proponent of the Rime tradition.
Nyingma, often referred to as Ngangyur, is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan in the eighth century, during the reign of King Trisong Detsen.
Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, also known by his tertön title, Pema Ösel Dongak Lingpa, was a teacher, scholar and tertön of 19th-century Tibet. He was a leading figure in the Rimé movement.
Sogyal Rinpoche was a Tibetan Dzogchen lama. He was recognized as the incarnation of a Tibetan master and visionary saint of the 19th century, Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa. Sogyal Rinpoche was the founder and former spiritual director of Rigpa — an international network of over 100 Buddhist centres and groups in 23 countries around the world — and the author of the best-selling book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, which has been printed in 30 languages and 56 countries. Before his retirement, in the wake of abuse allegations in 2017, he had been teaching for 40 years in Europe, America, Asia and Australia.
Chagdud Tulku was a Tibetan teacher of the Nyingma school of Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhism. He was known and respected in the West for his teachings, his melodic chanting voice, his artistry as a sculptor and painter, and his skill as a physician. He acted as a spiritual guide for thousands of students worldwide. He was the sixteenth tülku of the Chagdud line.
Dzogchen Monastery is one of the "Six Mother Monasteries" of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It is located in Kham within modern day Dêgê County, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China.
Kyabje Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje was known as Terchen Drodül Lingpa and as Dudjom Rinpoche. He is considered by many Tibetan Buddhists to be from a line of important Tulku lineage, and a renowned Tertön. Per lineage, he was a direct incarnation of both Padmasambhava and Dudjom Lingpa (1835–1904). He was a Nyingma householder, yogi, and a Vajrayana and Dzogchen master. According to his disciple Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal, he was revered as "His Holiness" and as a "Master of Masters".
Sherab Sangpo
Patrul Rinpoche (1808–1887) was a teacher and author from the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, written by Sogyal Rinpoche in 1992, is a presentation of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead or Bardo Thodol. The author wrote, "I have written The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying as the quintessence of the heart-advice of all my masters, to be a new Tibetan Book of the Dead and a Tibetan Book of Life." The book explores: the message of impermanence; evolution, karma and rebirth; the nature of mind and how to train the mind through meditation; how to follow a spiritual path in this day and age; the practice of compassion; how to care for and show love to the dying, and spiritual practices for the moment of death.
Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, 1894–1977, known also as Negi Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, Tenzin Gyaltsen, and various other names like Kunu Rinpoche, Kunu Lama and Negi Lama, was born in 1894 in the village of Sunam which lies in the Kinnaur district of India in the western Himalayas. He passed away at the age of 82 at Shashur Monastery in the Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachel Pradesh on February 23rd, 1977 while teaching the final page of Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation. Khunu Rinpoche was not officially recognized as a tulku, nor was he an ordained Buddhist monk, but a layman who had taken lay practitioner's vows before becoming a Tibetan Buddhist master.
Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche, also called Tulku Ugyen Topgyal, is a Tibetan Buddhist lama who was born in Kham in Eastern Tibet in 1951, living in exile in India.
Lerab Ling is a Tibetan Buddhist centre founded in 1992 by Sogyal Rinpoche in Roqueredonde, near Lodève in Occitanie, France. It contains perhaps the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Europe, which was officially inaugurated by the Dalai Lama in 2008 at a ceremony attended by Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
Rigpa is the name of an international Buddhist organization founded by Sogyal Rinpoche in 1979. It has centers and groups in 41 countries around the world. Following allegations of sexual and physical abuse in a letter by former students in 2017, Rigpa commissioned an independent investigation which found those claims to be largely substantiated, along with evidence of a cover-up. According to its website, Rigpa seeks to make the teachings of Buddha available to benefit as many people as possible, and to offer those following the Buddhist teachings a complete path of study and practice, along with the environment they need to explore the teachings to their fullest.
Christine Longaker is the former director of the Hospice of Santa Cruz County (California) and is considered a pioneer in the hospice movement. She has provided trainings in caring for the dying around the world since 1978. She co-designed Naropa University’s accredited training in ‘Contemplative End-of-Life Care’, and is the author of Facing Death and Finding Hope: A Guide to the Emotional and Spiritual Care of the Dying, which has been translated into nine languages, and is used in palliative and hospice care centers around the world. Longaker is currently writing a book and creating a curriculum on Self-Compassion.
Patrick John Gaffney is an English author, editor, translator, and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism who studied at the University of Cambridge. He was one of the main directors and teachers of Rigpa—the international network of Buddhist centres and groups founded by Sogyal Rinpoche. As of April 2019, Gaffney has been disqualified by the UK Charity Commission from acting as a trustee in all charities for a period of 8 years.
Dzogchen Ranyak Patrul Rinpoche is a Tibetan lama, teacher, and author in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the founder of the Dzogchen Centre Belgium, a branch of the Dzogchen Monastery in Tibet.